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Provincial price tag for college strike not ready, says MPP Matthews

It could be another week yet before Ontario crunches the numbers on how many college students who endured a five-week strike are seeking tuition refunds.

Just one day after the province said the numbers would be made public Thursday, Advanced Education Minister Deb Matthews of London said the government needed more time to compile the figures.

Last month, Matthews ordered colleges across the province to refund the tuition money for any student who felt unable to complete the condensed semester. The decision is likely to cost Ontario colleges millions of dollars which would have otherwise been saved because of the labour dispute.

The deadline for students to apply for a refund was Dec. 5.

“We have numbers from everyone but they’re not quite verified yet,” Matthews said.

“I would have liked to have given them to you today but they just aren’t ready for that.”

Matthews said preliminary data suggests the “vast majority” of students have chosen to stick with their programs and finish the semester.

“Overwhelmingly, students have chosen to stay,” she said, adding that the transition back to class has been hard on students and faculty alike.

The government ended the strike in November with back-to-work legislation passed in a rare weekend sitting at Queen’s Park.

More than half a million students at 24 colleges were affected, including tens of thousands at three Southwestern Ontario colleges — Fanshawe, St. Clair and Lambton — with operations in seven cities in the region.